palissimo.com

JEFFREY FRACÉ  Chair

Jeffrey Fracé is an actor, director, writer and producer. He has performed in over 40 theatre and dance productions worldwide, at venues including the Kennedy Center, Delacorte Theater, Iberoamerican Festival of Bogota, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Portland Stage. Dance-theater collaborations have included Palissimo, Yoel-Cassell, Marie-Christine Giordano, Dixie Fun Lee Shulman, RedShift and Elizabeth Haselwood. He also directs theatre, dance and opera, including this season's 1984 and Mother Courage and her Children for People's Branch Theatre in Nashville, and the upcoming As You Like It for Stonington Opera House. His original musical, The Story of Little Horse, received a Jerome Foundation grant, and is currently in developmental workshops at SITI Company Studio. He is a graduate of the 14-week Commercial Theatre Institute producing seminar, and, recently commissioned and produced and evening of short plays called States of Undress at 59E59 Theatres in NYC. He is the Artistic Director of Point B Foundation for the Arts, and an Associate Artist of SITI Company. He received his MFA from the Columbia University.

CECILE THAXTER

Cecile Thaxter is a director in UBS Investment Bank's Global Industrial Group. During her five years with the bank, she has been involved in a number of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt offerings and strategic advisory assignments. She also spent three months in UBS Japan, where she was instrumental in initiating US-Japan client coverage and implementing best practices in the Tokyo office. Cecile also worked in the Financial Advisory Services group of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for two years. While at PwC, she worked on a number of corporate valuation, restructuring and litigation assignments. Prior to business school, Cecile spent four years in Information Technology consulting, where she designed, coded and implemented computer application systems for the financial industry. Cecile received her MBA in Finance and Accounting from Columbia University and a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of the West Indies.

GARLAND GOODWIN WILSON

Garland Goodwin Wilson is the Artistic Director for Of Moving Colors Productions, a professional contemporary dance-theatre organization in Louisiana. Through her company, she has facilitated guest residencies for artists such as Emily Plauche' Flink, Hannah Kahn and Joe Alegado. She has produced and choreographed for over 15 major productions and an extensive list of educational venues. Garland served in the capacity of Director at Large for the organization from 2002-2004 and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Baton Rouge Performing Arts Alliance, the Louisiana Dance Alliance and Palissimo Dance Theatre Company. She has served on grants panels for the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and is currently the co-chair of the 2nd Annual Louisiana Dance Festival.